Accumulated toxins: Why little swaps matter so much

Aug 4

9 min read

You may wonder if making all the little swaps I talk about really matters. Like does changing your laundry detergent, household cleaner, face creams or dishwasher soap actually make a meaningful difference? Is it worth the effort and sometimes a higher price?

I get why people wonder, especially when research comes out, gets shared everywhere, and then someone comes along and casts doubt on it.

That happened with a pretty recent study that raised concerns about dishwasher detergents and rinse aids damaging your gut barrier. A later review argued that one of the concentrations tested was more than 300 times higher than typical household exposure. It also pointed out that the household detergents tested did not appear to damage cells at the dilution expected during normal home use.

I think it’s good to always ask questions are reevaluate facts. Ideally research reflects real-life exposure as closely as possible.

BUT…

That criticism answers one very specific question about one study. It does not answer what happens when small exposures are repeated day after day.

Or are combined with chemicals from dozens of other sources OR continued across your entire lifetime. And since kids can’t ethically be tested (purposefully exposed to potentially toxic chemicals) any potential damage to them is largely unknown.

Maybe the everyday amount from one product is tiny, though that's relative, if you ask me. Maybe future research will discover that that one ingredient is less concerning than it first appeared.

But if I can avoid a questionable, unnecessary ingredient without sacrificing how well a product works (especially without paying a ton more), why would I choose to take that risk with my family? Not me. 👏

What about accumulation?

There is already plenty of evidence that repeated exposure matters. Major health authorities recognize different forms of chemical accumulation, ongoing exposure and cumulative biological effects.

For example, Harvard Medical School researchers used machine learning (a kind of AI) to study existing data from rats that were exposed to 160 chemicals.

The rats were given three dose levels and then their liver and kidney responses were measured from three hours through to 29 days.

Your liver and kidneys are made to help clear many chemicals from your body but that doesn’t mean those chemicals are harmless while they are there.

Repeated exposure can still affect or damage the organs trying to clear them out. And some chemicals are not quickly cleared at all. They can remain stored in your body for years.

The notable results from this Harvard data analysis was that liver and kidney responses changed over time. Some were defensive or adaptive reactions. Some involved tissue injury and some negative effects appeared later, during continued exposure.

This showed that harmful effects can build up over repeated exposures, even when the chemical itself isn’t stored in the body. But we don’t know for sure they are NOT stored.

We DO know that some chemicals really DO remain inside the body and accumulate. In fact, some chemicals can remain stored in the body for years. For example, lead and dioxins.

Dioxins are highly toxic. They can interfere with hormones, harm the immune and reproductive systems, affect a developing baby’s nervous system and are connected to cancer. Fetuses and newborns are especially sensitive to the effects.

Dioxins are created through industrial processes and burning waste, and then they build up within our food chain.

The World Health Organization says more than 90% of our exposure to dioxins comes through food (mainly meat, dairy products, fish, and shellfish). Once dioxins enter the body, they’re stored in your fatty tissue and can take 7 to 11 years to reduce even by half.

That means they have years to affect your body, and continued exposure adds to the amount already stored there.

Lead is another extremely toxic chemical that can build up in the body. Exposure can come through old paint, household dust, contaminated soil, drinking water from some pipes and plumbing and even from certain imported spices, cosmetics, medicines, cookware, toys and jewelry. (You’ve seen my IG posts on home lead-testing second hand and even new dishes, right??)

In adults lead can damage your brain and nervous system, raise blood pressure, damage the kidneys, cause anemia, weaken your immune system and affect fertility. Children are even more vulnerable because their brains and nervous systems are still developing! Lead exposure has been connected to long-term problems with learning, attention, speech, hearing, growth and even behavior.

The CDC says that lead can accumulate in your bones over time and stay there for decades!

During pregnancy lead can be released back into the blood and reach the developing baby. This can harm the baby’s brain, kidneys, the nervous system and increase the risk of miscarriage, premature birth and low birth weight. So an exposure that happened years ago may still matter during a future pregnancy.

Other chemicals may leave the body more quickly but keep being replaced through daily exposure. The body may be clearing yesterday’s exposure while receiving today’s. That means the chemical itself doesn't have to remain for biological effects to build, recur or show up later. Think about the kind of chemicals found in dishwashing detergents, laundry soap, body creams, air fresheners, dryer sheets and more.

Hormone-disrupting chemicals add another layer to toxic accumulation. Your hormones function naturally using incredibly small measures. It’s a very fine-tuned process and a delicate balance.

The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences says even low amounts of some endocrine-disrupting chemicals may compromise sensitive hormonal systems.

Exposure matters more during pregnancy, infancy, childhood and puberty when hormones are at the core of so much foundational growth and development.

Then there are mixtures. The EPA recognizes “cumulative risk” as the combined risk from multiple chemicals, exposure routes and other toxic stressors. Because that’s how we actually live. Our bodies do not encounter one ingredient from one product on one perfectly isolated day. It’s multiple exposures from multiple sources, pretty much all the time!

Science has not tested every low-dose chemical combination across an entire human life. It’s probably not even possible, given the unique blend or cocktail of chemical exposures that make up an individual life. What you use and or are exposed to is not exactly what your neighbor uses or is exposed to. There are simply too many variables. Which is why there is still so much we do not know.

For me, those unknowns are precisely why I make the easy swaps where I can.

I look at the whole home

This is why I put household cleaners, laundry products, creams, lotions, deodorant, food and food packaging in the same general bucket.

I cannot control everything my family is exposed to. None of us can. So I focus on what we use constantly: cleaners on our counters, detergent in our clothes and bedding, products on our skin, foods we eat regularly, diapers and soap residue on the dishes we eat from.

Truly Free’s laundry detergent was actually what first got me hooked on the brand. Now I use Truly Free throughout our home because I can replace several high-use products without making clean living complicated. AND they actually work!!

A “cleaner” product is not very helpful if it leaves the laundry dirty or the dishes covered in food. 😉

I have been asking Truly Free for months to run a Dishwasher Soap promotion, and they finally did!

Right now, you can try 25 loads for $5 with free shipping. That's only 20 cents a load for one of the easiest swaps you can make for your whole family.

Why your dishwasher detergent deserves a closer look

I run our dishwasher every night so this is a daily exposure in my home. Dishwasher detergent is used directly on all or most of the plates, cups and silverware my family eats and drinks from. If residue is left behind, that's where it stays. Most popular formulas include ingredients that do not need to be there!

In March 2026, the Danish Consumer Council THINK Chemicals examined the ingredient lists of 40 dishwasher detergents. Eight received its lowest chemical rating due to suspected endocrine disruptors, persistent substances, suspected carcinogens and/or other concerning ingredients.

Seven products contained benzotriazole, a corrosion inhibitor which is a suspected endocrine disruptor. It was also classified as persistent in the environment in 2025, meaning it's difficult to break down and can accumulate in nature.

One product contained trisodium nitrilotriacetate, or NTA, a substance suspected of being carcinogenic and received the lowest C rating.

Half of the products they tested contained fragrance. In dishwasher detergent! Fragrance does nothing to make our dishes cleaner. The council even noted that sometimes the fragrance can be tasted on dishes, particularly items made from plastic or melamine. Why add that exposure when it serves no cleaning purpose at all?

Then there’s the polyvinyl alcohol film (PVA/PVOH) wrapped around most pods. PVA is a plastic polymer. When the wrapper dissolves, it becomes invisible in the wash water but that doesn’t mean it’s disappeared. The dissolved polymer still has to be broken down by microorganisms and that requires the right conditions. There’s no real way to guarantee those conditions are met.

A 2021 study estimated that about 75% of the PVA used in laundry and dishwasher pods may pass through US wastewater treatment without fully breaking down. That could send it into rivers, oceans or soil through treated water and sewage sludge.

Does this prove every pod wrapper harms people or the environment? No. But it’s an extra synthetic polymer (microplastic) that doesn’t make the dishes any cleaner AND there are still unanswered questions about what happens to it after it goes down the drain. When an effective loose powder removes the wrapper completely, that’s an easy choice for me.

The Danish council was very reasonable about its findings. It acknowledged that exposure from dishwasher tablets is low, but said there is no reason to clean with unwanted chemicals when they can be avoided. Exactly. That's the point.

And remember, these were products sold in Denmark, where detergents are regulated under stricter EU rules. EU detergents must meet requirements for biodegradability, phosphorus limits and ingredient information.

In the US, companies aren’t even federally required to disclose every ingredient in cleaning products. That doesn’t prove every American product is worse. But if concerning ingredients are showing up even under stronger EU rules we certainly can’t assume the products on US shelves are any cleaner. Likely the opposite is true in many cases and another reason I take the ingredients of products I choose so seriously! If regulators are not looking out for my family or yours, I sure am!

Depending on the formula, conventional dishwasher detergents and pods may contain ingredients like formaldehyde or formaldehyde-releasing ingredients, phosphates, chlorine bleach, DEA and MEA, triclosan, synthetic dyes, polyacrylates, methylisothiazolinone, benzisothiazolinone and sodium borate.

A large area of study has been how these chemicals not only significantly disrupt hormones, but our gut barrier and function as well.

My decision to make this particular swap is definitely because of one gut-barrier study…

It comes from the full picture that includes repeated exposure, chemicals known to remain in the body (or environment), hormone disruption, mixture effects, unnecessary ingredients and all the questions science has yet to answer…which are too many!

Truly Free is such an easy yes

Truly Free Dishwasher Soap is a loose powder, so there is no PVA pod film. It's fragrance-free and dye-free, and it doesn’t contain benzotriazole or trisodium NTA. It uses cleaning ingredients and enzymes to break down food and grease and yes, it gets the dishes clean!

In my experience, it works WAY BETTER. I have used conventional detergents that left white residue behind. With Truly Free, my dishes come out shiny, clean, and completely residue-free. 🙌

Remember, the $5 trial works out to 20 cents per load. At their highest subscription savings level, a 50-load bag works out to about 30 cents per load with my discount code SADIE30.

Dishwasher pods typically cost 30–50% more per load than powder, so this swap can cost less than many commercial pod options. It's functionally effective AND cost effective.

Cleaner ingredients, genuinely clean dishes, no plastic pod wrapper and a lower cost than many of the big-name options? That's a no-brainer for me.

What we buy matters

We may not know the exact effect of every tiny exposure across a lifetime but we do know that some chemicals are stored in our bodies, some exposures repeat over and over and biological effects can develop over time. We also know we are exposed to many chemicals at once, not one at a time.

People are saying NO to hormone disruptors, carcinogens, allergens and irritants, and it’s an easy swap to make!

And remember: companies pay attention to what consumers will and will not buy. The Danish review found benzotriazole in nearly one-third of the products it tested in 2022. By 2026, it was in fewer than one in five. Formulas can change. The products offered to us can get better. But it starts with us refusing to spend our money on ingredients we do not want in our homes or around our families.

TRY TRULY FREE DISHWASHER SOAP: 25 LOADS FOR $5 + FREE SHIPPING (or to re-stock, use my code SADIE30 for 30% OFF sitewide!)